Suspicious
by TealEyedBeing
Summary: Rukia knows there's something off about Ichigo, but she can't find out what exactly; especially when she can't hear the conversation going on inside that orange head of his. Warnings/Disclaimer inside.


_**Warnings/Disclaimer: **__I can already tell this will get tiresome. I even have a disclaimer on my profile now for Pete's sake. Jeesh… Anyways, point being, I own none of the characters or words associated with the Bleach world of the masterful Tite Kubo. Only the story plot is mine. Warnings include mentioning of ShiroIchi yaoi relationship._

* * *

_**~x~**_

**Suspicious **

_**~x~**_

"Ichigo!"

One would think that the orange haired shinigami would have far used to having his name called out at all hours of the day by his raven-haired shinigami companion, but sorely, that is not the case with our beloved hero.

"Shit!" Ichigo yelped, flailing with spectacular finesse and falling dramatically off his bed and to the hardwood floor as the protagonist of his most current misery, Rukia, suddenly soared through his open window, landing gracefully on the now unoccupied bed. The unfortunate human teenager landed awkwardly on his face, and his tall body fell soon after with a disconcerting twist and thud.

Rukia was not impressed by her charge's unintentional acrobatics. "What are you doing on the floor? We've go work to do!" The raven-haired shinigami scolded scathingly, violet eyes sparking with (un)righteous fury that Ichigo was being so lazy in an unkempt time of an attack.

Glowering at the nearest inanimate object close to his face, Ichigo grumbled under his breath before gently disengaging his face with his bedroom floor. "You surprised me is all. What's the problem? Hollows?" The orange haired substitute Shinigami sat up dutifully, rubbing his nose where it had been intimately acquainted with the crack in his floorboards. The appendage protested the attempted soothing with a twinge of pain that made the manly teen wince girlishly.

His friend snorted unsympathetically. "What else? Now hurry up and let's go!" Rukia scorned effortlessly, twisting gracefully in her shihaksho and catapulting herself back out of the Kurosaki male's window, using reishi in the air to propel herself _through_ the air, aka a shunpo step.

'_**Damn annoying bitch.'**_

Ichigo jumped habitually, still unused to hearing his Hollow's voice within his mind, speaking without malice or cruelty- well, maybe without as _much_ malice and cruelty as before. '_She's not that bad.' _The orange-haired teenager replied, pressing his shinigami daiko badge, given to him by Ukitake-taicho, against his chest. True to its purpose, the medallion jerked his soul form out. Far used to this sensation, Ichigo felt not even a faint recollection of it ever hurting in the first place. Propelling himself out the window after the disappeared (very) older shinigami, Ichigo used a few shunpo steps to relatively catch up to the girl.

'_**Oh yes she is!' **_The Hollow trapped inside hissed contradictorily._** ' She's always comin' 'round 'ere! I really think **_**she**_** thinks she still lives 'ere!' **_Judging by the irate albino's disapproving snarl, Shirosaki didn't much like that idea of misplaced belonging from the Kuchiki.

'_Well, she used to and I guess it's just hard to change old habits you know?' _Ichigo defended his friend habitually, no real heat behind his words that could've possibly shown that he was upset with his inner half talking bad about one of his trusted friends.

Shiro snorted scornfully, unknowingly reminiscent of the woman he was so spitefully speaking of now. _'__**Yeah, very, apparently.' **_The inner Hollow's oily voice sniffed with dissatisfaction.

Ichigo sighed in partial defeat, veering sharply at the last second to avoid a telephone pole he hadn't seen until he'd almost ran-shunpoed right smack dab into it. He really needed to pay more attention to his surroundings when talking to his inner Hollow, he mused thoughtfully before following up the conversation with a question of his own. _'Why do you hate her? All of my friends in fact?'_

'_**Cuz all they eva do is use ya t' do wha' them weak selves can't.' **_Shirosaki answered instantly, almost as if he had practiced and had that answer prepared to spit out as soon as his "good" half asked the inquiry.

Now genuinely affronted, Ichigo retorted sharply. _'That's not true!' _He denied, outwardly furrowing his brows and pursing his lips distastefully at the thought of his friends "using" him for their own gain.

'_**Oh yes it is!' **_The invisible albino countered effortlessly._** ' Tha's why yer always trainin' t' get stronger!' **_He pointed out smugly. If the Hollow were birdlike instead of reptilian, he would be preening right about now.

Ichigo's thought-process ground to a halt, his mouth faltering. _'Uh...' _Shiro kind of made an annoyingly valid point with that unexpected insightful comment.

Shirosaki crooned triumphantly. _**'Exactly.'**_ After that victoriously single-worded remark, the albino "demon" quieted down, satisfied that he had won that particular argument.

Meanwhile, Rukia was watching the orange haired teen closely, violet eyes narrowed and alert. She would see his expressions change fluently, as if he was bickering with someone that neither of them could see. Occasionally, he would even start to mouth a fragment of a word aloud but would catch himself before he could utter a syllable. The immortal soul was becoming extremely suspicious as to what was really going on inside her charge's mind.

Ichigo started in thought, unknowingly giving Rukia a surprised expression to take into observation. '_Hey Shiro. I just remembered.' _He announced with a rather blank tone, one not of boredom or indifference, but just one without any further emotion.

'_**Congratulations.' **_Shirosaki provided laughingly, grinning invisibly when Ichigo inwardly glowered but ignored his sassy remark and asked "aloud" his recalled inquiry.

'_What were you going to say before Rukia showed up?'_

'_**Huh?' **_The Hollow made a brief, short noise of confusion, scowling like his host does normally with determined thoughtfulness, supplying Ichigo with a mental expression of enlightenment when he also remembered their previous conversation._** 'Oh yeah! Uh… shit, I forgot.' **_He mumbled sullenly.

Ichigo instantly laughed aloud, not catching or realizing it, too intent on teasing his inner Hollow with the wordless sound to care that Rukia was shooting him a near-scandalized, perplexed expression of utmost confusion.

'_**Don't laugh at me!'**_ Shiro puffed air angrily. _**'I'll remember it later.' **_He assured the teen confidentially, a scowl stretching down his mirrored lips when all his host did was smirk and "reassure" him with false security.

'_I'm sure you will Shiro.'_

Rukia jumped in pure astonishment when Ichigo's left foot seemingly caught on absolutely nothing and the orange head went tumbling through the air with indignant yelps and spiteful curses, the curious name of "Shiro" thrown into the mix. What the hell was going on in that boy's head?

* * *

_Lol I was being lazy mostly on rewriting this one, but I'm glad I finally did :D I enjoyed the alterations immensely x3 and zomg! THANK YOU EVERYONE! I've got more reviews for my rewritten fics than I did when I posted them originally! ^^ I adore you guys!_


End file.
